Talk Elections

HP (normal)

^

I'm reading that Rolling Stone article right now. Seriously unpleasant, disturbing stuff.

Which one?

The one about the bigot town?

Yeah.

Same as anti-nerd, anti-black, anti-white, anti-Jew, and every single form of bullying---HP.

A link to the RS article about Bigotsville?

 Not for the faint-hearted. (http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/one-towns-war-on-gay-teens-20120202)

All bullies are horrible people, period.

However, as someone who is constantly teased for being openly bisexual, it's subjective. I take very well to criticism, it normally does not bother me. In fact, I flaunt my sexuality and often proclaim it loud enough for everyone to hear. When you take away the fun of being picked on, people won't do it. But on the other hand, some kids don't take criticism very well. From a teenage boy's standpoint, there is nothing that can be done to stop bullying. There is no law that can be passed, no amount of money that can be spent, that will ever stop kids from being kids.

You tricky, tricky, tricky bastard. Made me vote FF by putting it below HP.

Somebody else voted FF, and I'm not sure I want to know who it was.

How is this even a serious question? Bullying, in all of its incarnations, is a despicable practice.

All bullying is bad.

Period.

Though all bullying is bad, anti-gay bullying has taken on a level of personal viciousness and violence not seen since hating blacks was en vogue. It's truly one of the most disturbing and sad trends in society right now, and unfortunately is directly and indirectly justified by the usual suspects.

I've actually heard people take a "blame the victim" approach to bullying -- though not anti-gay bullying, since they would've gotten banned from the site where they said this.

See and some people think I'm crazy for being so disgusted by suburbs.

I feel a little sick in my mouth after reading that. Bachmann is a total c-nt.

Yeah, it was tough to get through. :(

What utterly horrible people.

It's a good thing we have religion around to prevent things like this as it teaches people to be rational and compassionate.

Bullying in general is one of the things that horrify me the most. I definitely too faint-hearted to even try watching this documentary, but I can easily imagine the level of atrociousness.

And who the  voted FF? They deserve to be shot.

Perhaps one of our blue avatar closet cases...

I'm pretty sure the people doing that are just protesting how inane the poll is. You know, like in that "opinion of Hitler" thread.

Attitude like that makes you no better than the bigot.

Again, a lot of people know me as that politically incorrect guy, but there are times when I feel obliged to point out when somebody crosses the line.  In my opinion, saying that somebody deserves to be shot, especially if it's somebody on this forum, crosses that line.

I won't report this post, because using the report button would violate my personal beliefs (unlike some hypocrites who I won't name here).  I also would heavily discourage anybody else from reporting the post and instead take this as a notice that saying somebody deserves to be shot is kind of a dickhead thing to say.

Otherwise, I agree with the sentiment that bullying is an asshole thing to do.

HP as every bulling.

This is a stupid question, so I'm voting FF (like how most forumites vote FF in an "Opinion of Hitler" poll)

There are good and bad suburbs, politically. My distaste for suburbs as a construct is primarily aesthetic and sociological.


It depends on the religion.

So it's not okay to call little Brittany a c**nt but it's okay to call Michelle Bachmann a c**nt?

I see.  We can bully people for their political views, but not for being fat or being a lesbian.  Glad we got that straightened out.

Bachmann has, one imagines, choices regarding whether or not to actively make life worse for people who are not like her.

...and here I was thinking that all bullying was bad.  Apparently sometimes taunting and name-calling and public degradation is okay, so long one understands which groups we're allowed to beat up on.  I'm not defending Bachmann, just trying to understand the new moral fashion.
 

In another article, which you can link to at the bottom of the Rolling Stone story posted herein, Matt Taibbi of the Rolling Stone writes,

"...Bachmann is a religious zealot whose brain is a raging electrical storm of divine visions and paranoid delusions. She believes that the Chinese are plotting to replace the dollar bill, that light bulbs are killing our dogs and cats, and that God personally chose her to become both an IRS attorney who would spend years hounding taxpayers and a raging anti-tax Tea Party crusader against big government. She kicked off her unofficial presidential campaign in New Hampshire, by mistakenly declaring it the birthplace of the American Revolution..."

That's all fair.  It's accurate.  It doesn't amount to bullying.  

However, "Bachmann is a c**nt" is a very different sort of statement.  It's degrading.  And I find it particularly ironic since the posted Rolling Stone articles uses the exact same language to describe how young Brittany was unjustly taunted.  Either Bullying is acceptable or it is not.  But if it's not--and I'd agree that it should not be--then we must apply the same rules to everyone.  

Does Bachmann want to make life worse for people not like her?  It has never been clear to me that Bachmann has the goal of making life tougher for anyone.  Sure, she probably wishes more poeple thought like her, just as we all do.  She has some unorthodox ideas, and she's much too traditional for my tastes, and she is unyielding and, worse, misinformed.  She would be the sort of President who would take us into nukyular war with Iran to save Israel.  Or the sort who would build a big fence around the United States.  It's good that the GOP recognized the danger that she poses early on, and now she's out of the spotlight, but it is her prerogative to initiate legislation that she thinks is in the best interests of the people of her congressional district, for as long as the people of her district decide to re-elect her.  

haha.  Okay, it occurs to me that the next time I call Michele Bachmann a c**nt, someone is going to throw this little diatribe in my face.  Fair enough, but I just wanted afleitch to appreciate the irony he created.

You realize Afleitch knew what he was doing when he called the Bachmann a c**nt, right? The whole point is that it's the same language, yet now adequately applied.

yes, the thought had occurred to me, but I decided that it merited comment.  

(I was a bit mystified by the taunts of "cock muncher."  Shouldn't it be "rug muncher?")

It's also not so much because of Bachmann's beliefs as because since she is a US Congresswoman she is a public feature by virtue of those beliefs and in a position to impose them on other people. If she was not a public figure, or a public figure for some other reason, I'd have a problem with it.

Okay Nathan, that's fair.  Peace.

Yeah, could we avoid that word?  I realize it's more common in the UK, but...

So we shouldn't mention Country Matters here? It's a little odd that it's not censored given that Americans tend to react to it even more than people here.

I mean, again, I realize the word isn't nearly the big deal in Commonwealth countries as it is in the US, but it's treated as a pretty vile slur here.

I mean, I wouldn't go out of my way to infract its use when it's not being used as a personal attack, but I'd argue that it's pretty much universally regarded as more "offensive" than the Anglo-Saxon euphemism for sexual intercourse that begins with the letter f that we do censor.

All bullying is horrible. Nobody deserves to be treated like trash.

I got bullied a lot in Middle school, and even as a HS Senior my self esteem is still feeling the effects of bullying. I mean bullying has so much effects on a person.  My self esteem collapsed, and still has yet to recover.

Anyone who votes FF for this needs to be examined.

All bullying is horrible. Nobody deserves to be treated like trash.

I got bullied a lot in Middle school, and even as a HS Senior my self esteem is still feeling the effects of bullying. I mean bullying has so much effects on a person.  My self esteem collapsed, and still has yet to recover.

Anyone who votes FF for this needs to be examined.

Word.

I'm pretty sure you, Mikado, and afleitch can mention anything you like.  However, for the rest of us, no fannies (sp?) allowed.

What exactly do FF and HP stand for? I know FF is good and HP is bad, but what exactly are they?

FF = Freedom Fighter
HP = Horrible Person

But obviously, these acronyms have come to be used to describe non-persons here as well. :)

Any form of victimisation or verbal or physical abuse against anyone for who they are is flat-out wrong and should be punished.

From my experience with gay friends in high school, thankfully, most had a pretty decent trot, but one or two were abused, mostly verbally, for years. I got picked on for being a nerd (thankfully never a geek, I wouldn't have put up with that) and especially during the middle years, chubby. When someone picks on you, just for you are, not only makes you feel like garbage, but makes you fundamentally hate yourself. In some ways you start to believe you deserve to be bullied and only "if I were different" they'd like me.

I have a few mental scars, but in the end, we need to educate kids that bullying is wrong, but sadly what we saw on the playground came from the home.

This is why I think things like the 'It Gets Better' project are so important, kids who are dealing with daily hell, need to know that despite how awful things are now, the best revenge is a good life.

All bullying is terrible. It doesn't really matter the reason. I actually have been at the recieving end of extensive anti-gay bullying, and I'm not even gay; everyone just seems to think I am. It really hurt, so I can only imagine what an actual gay person would feel in that situation.

Seems like a silly question, who on earth is going to vote "FF"? ???

In protest. This question is super obvious that anti-gay bullying is horrible, so I voted FF in protest to how stupid this topic is.

Exactly. I often vote that way in these FF/HP polls when I think the answer to a certain question is obvious. In this case, it's pretty evident that there is hardly anyone who approves of bullying people.

Bullies often don't think they are bullies. Some religiously motivated and loaded rhetoric can be considered bullying, but the bullies would never think otherwise.

Keep in mind that for some folks, even heterosexual oral sex is considered deviant unholy behavior since it isn't for the purpose of procreation.

I admit I haven't got a firm opinion on this, but I tend to believe that bullying happens consciously. I think in order to be considered a bully someone really has to be aware of the impact of his or her vicious words or actions. Of course, some things person A says can be interpeted as hurtful by person B, but as long as person A is not aware of B's reaction I would not speak of bullying.

Anyone who voted FF is either quite mean spirited and/or making a bad joke. Anti-gay bullying is wrong and indefensible as is all forms of bullying.


Exactly. Those who say that anti-bullying laws shouldn't enumerate such classes (gay, black, etc.) are oblivious to the point. The vast majority of bullies choose their victims because of actual or perceived belonging to any of the following--gay, foreign, disabled, etc.

No one is saying that bullying will ever be eliminated. But we should limit it as infrequent as possible and be far more antagonistic towards the bullies and far more supportive of the victims. Plenty of actions that are dismissed as "bullying" are illegal and/or very frowned upon when done among adults.

A civilized society should not tolerate bullying. Period.

As for those saying this is a stupid poll, this question should be obvious, but alas there is a sizeable group of people (not necessarily on this forum) who think or act like bullying is not a big deal.